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Cartoons Not so broken - The Fostering Network ​ 2017 This short, moving animation, and accompanying book, was launched alongside an exhibition showcasing artistic work produced in a wide range of media by over 100 children and young people in foster care across Northern Ireland. External Website

Autobiography/Memoir Letters to Gil Malik Al Nasir 2021 Letters to Gil tells the story of Gil Scott-Heron (who had been in kinship care as a child) mentoring a young Malik Al Nasir (or Mark T. Watson as he was known then). Malik Al Nasir was born to a Welsh mother and Guyanese father and taken into care when he was 9 after his father was paralysed. He later sued the government for the way he was treated when in care. An accidental meeting between Gil Scott-Hron and Malik Al Nasir contributed significantly to Malik's becoming a performance poet and social commentator. External Website

Fiction by Care Experienced authors Being Lara: A Novel Lola Jaye 2012 A poignant and provocative story of adoption, self-discovery, and the meaning of family, Being Lara by author Lola Jaye (By the Time You Read This) is an unforgettable tale of three women—British mother, Nigerian birth mother, and 30-year-old daughter—the choices they made, and the fragile bond they try to create across time and continents. Intelligent and touching, Being Lara is exquisite contemporary fiction with heart and soul that will resonate with readers of Cecilia Ahearn, Thrity Umrigar, and Shilpi Gowda. External Website

Comics, Comic books & Graphic Novels Palimpsest: Documents From a Korean Adoption Lisa Wool-Rim Sjöblom 2019 Thousands of South Korean children were adopted around the world in the 1970s and 1980s. More than nine thousand found their new home in Sweden, including the cartoonist Lisa Wool-Rim Sjöblom, who was adopted when she was two years old. Throughout her childhood she struggled to fit into the homogenous Swedish culture and was continually told to suppress the innate desire to know her origins. “Be thankful,” she was told; surely her life in Sweden was better than it would have been in Korea. Like many adoptees, Sjöblom learned to bury the feeling of abandonment. In Palimpsest, an emotionally charged memoir, Sjöblom’s unaddressed feelings about her adoption come to a head when she is pregnant with her first child. When she discovers a document containing the names of her biological parents, she realizes her own history may not match up with the story she’s been told her whole life: that she was an orphan without a background. As Sjöblom digs deeper into her own backstory, returning to Korea and the orphanage, she finds that the truth is much more complicated than the story she was told and struggled to believe. The sacred image of adoption as a humanitarian act that gives parents to orphans begins to unravel. External Website

Fiction by Care Experienced authors Man Who Lived Underground Richard Wright 2021 The Man Who Lived Underground was first submitted to Richard Wright's publisher in 1941, but was rejected, perhaps, one person suggests, because its "depiction of police brutality was "unbearable"". It is being published in 2021, and tells the story of an African American man who is coerced into confessing a crime he did not commit and then escapes to live underground in the sewer system. External Website

Children's Non-fiction Alan Turing Maria Isabel Sanchez Vegara 2020 Alan Turing (1912-1954) was an English computer scientist and mathematician. As a child he was in foster care for much of his first 10 years. Alan grew up in England, where his best friends were numbers and a little boy called Christopher. When his young friend died, Alan retreated to the world of numbers and codes, where he discovered how to crack the code of the Nazi Enigma machine. This moving book features stylish and quirky illustrations and extra facts at the back, including a biographical timeline with historical photos and a detailed profile of the brilliant mathematician's life. External Website

Autobiography/Memoir Bath Times & Nursery Rhymes Pam Weaver 2013 Adopted from birth, Pam Weaver trained as a nursery nurse working in children's homes, premature baby units, day nurseries and at one time she was a Hyde Park nanny. After training as a Nursery Nurse in the 1960’s, she worked in County Council Children’s Homes, private day nurseries and as a Hyde Park nanny. Her experiences are in Bath Times & Nursery Rhymes which became a Sunday Times best-seller. In 1961, sixteen year-old Pam Weaver began her training as a nursery nurse. Drawn to this profession by her caring nature and a desire to earn her own living, Pam had no idea of the road she was about to start down. At the government-run nursery, she found early mornings, endless floors to scrub, overbearing matrons, heartbreaking stories of abandonment, true friends and life lessons that would stay with her for decades. External Website

Children's Fiction Who Am I? The Diary of Mary Talence, Sydney 1937 Anita Heiss 2001 Who Am I? is the fictional diary of a young Aboriginal girl, Mary Talence, a member of the Stolen Generation. The Sister in charge of Bomaderry Aboriginal Children’s Home gave her a diary. Through its pages she describes her life – from her arrival there, aged five, through her struggle to understand why she was taken from her real mother, to her adoption at ten years of age by a white Catholic family in St Ives. Mary is increasingly confused and ashamed as she is taught that white skinned is good, black skinned is bad. She longs to understand why this is so but finds that almost any questions provoke anger and accusations of ingratitude from the Burkes, her white adoptive family. External Website

Blogs/Web Pages/Articles Most Popular Orphan Girl Movies and TV Shows IMDb ​ A listing by IMDb of the most popular movies and televisions with an 'orphan-girl'. External Website

Children's Fiction The Bad Beginning (A Series of Unfortunate Events) Lemony Snicket 2018 The novel tells the story of three children, Violet, Klaus, and Sunny Baudelaire, who become orphans following a fire and are sent to live with Count Olaf, who attempts to steal their inheritance. Violet, Klaus, and Sunny Baudelaire are intelligent children. They are charming, and resourceful, and have pleasant facial features. Unfortunately, they are exceptionally unlucky. External Website

Children's Fiction Delly Duck (4-8 years) Holly Marlow 2021 When Delly Duck lays an egg, she is excited for it to hatch. But she doesn’t really know how to keep an egg safe, or how to look after her chick when he hatches. See how a concerned goose tries to help Delly to learn how to care for her chick, in this touching adoption story. External Website

Blogs/Web Pages/Articles How 10 Orphans From eSwatini Helped Write A Prize-Winning Movie Rachel Cohen 2018 A discussion about the making of a film which includes actual orphans talking about their own experiences in the New Life Homes orphanage in eSwatini. External Website

Children's Fiction The Cherub Series Robert Muchamore 2005 The Cherub Series by English writer Robert Muchamore, is 17 books (15 million copies sold in 26 languages) about the fictional division of the British Security Service called CHERUB and employing mostly orphans. James Adams is the protagonist at the beginning of the series, and he's living in a children's home. He's recruited by CHERUB just as he's turning 12 and, after basic training, discovers his sister has been too. According to children's fiction specialist, Sarah Mokrzycki https://sarahjayne.net.au/, the Cherub Series is recommended reading for teenagers who have seen more of life than your average child. External Website

Blogs/Web Pages/Articles Stolen Generations Testimonies Stolen Generations' Testimonies 2003 The ‘Stolen Generations’ Testimonies’ project is an initiative to record on film the personal testimonies of Australia’s Stolen Generations Survivors and share them online. The Stolen Generations Testimonies Project was initiated by filmmaker Melanie Hogan (www.melaniehogan.com ) soon after the release of her acclaimed documentary film Kanyini (www.kanyini.com ), featuring Stolen Generation Survivor Uncle Bob Randall. In 2009 more than thirty Stolen Generations’ Survivors shared their stories, their memories and themselves in the first round of interviews for the ‘Stolen Generations’ Testimonies Foundation’. External Website

Children's Fiction Ballet Shoes Noel Streatfeild 2015 Pauline, Petrova and Posy Fossil are sisters - with a difference. All three were adopted as babies by Great Uncle Matthew, an eccentric and rich explorer who then disappeared, leaving them in the care of his niece Sylvia. The girls grow up in comfort until their money begins to run out and nobody can find Great Uncle Matthew.Things look bleak until they hit on an inspired idea: Pauline, Petrova and Posy will take to the stage. But it's not long before the Fossils learn that being a star isn't as easy as they first thought... Noel Streatfeild once said that Ballet Shoes was 'really a fairy story with its feet half-way on the ground' - a magical description for a magical book. External Website

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Children's Fiction Pippi Longstocking Astrid Ross Lindgren et al. 2002 Pippi is nine years old, lives alone with a horse and a money, and does exactly as she pleases. She has no mother and her father is king of a cannibal island, so she has learnt to look after herself. She gets up when she likes, never goes to school, talks a great deal, keeps a chest of gold coins under the bed, and is unexpectedly strong. The book is full of her marvellous escapades. External Website

Blogs/Web Pages/Articles The Uses of Orphans Alison Kinney 2015 The literary orphan belongs to no world except that of narrative opportunity, but some real orphans seek to change the world with rage External Website

Fiction by Care Experienced authors Notice Me!: A Barnardo Child's Scrapbook of Memories : 1946 to 1961 Suzi Hamilton 2012 The sickly offspring of a black American Serviceman and an uncaring English woman. Dumped into Dr Barnardos and conveniently forgotten. Potentially lovable, but never loved. Bright, mischievous and temperamental; but above all, resilient. Emotionally and spiritually confused, but protected throughout by a Father she only came to know after many years. A miracle of spiritual and physical healing made her realise that she also had a Mother who really cared - I was that child; This is my story. External Website

Biography of Care Experienced People Crackers and Milk Arlene Nelson 2006 Sarah Richards, the oldest of five children growing up in the early 20th Century rural Midwest, struggles to hold her family together as she and her three siblings attempt to survive illness, abandonment, abuse, negelct, hunger, institutionalization, and loss. In Crackers and Milk, Arlene Nelson retells her mother's amazing story of an unusually tarnished childhood, as her mother told it to her many years ago. External Website